The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

The Wells Fargo fake account fiasco has already resulted in the “retirement” of the bank’s CEO, John Stumpf, and Carrie Tolstedt, Wells’ head of retail banking, for allowing employees to open millions of unauthorized accounts in customers’ names. But the bloodletting isn’t done yet, as Wells has dismissed four additional executives without the PR-friendly spin of “retirement.”

Bloomberg reports that Wells Fargo fired four executives following the company’s board of director’s invention into the years-long fake account fiasco.

The fired employees include Claudia Russ Anderson, former community bank chief risk officer; Pamela Conboy, a regional president for Arizona; Shelley Freeman, former Los Angeles regional president and now head of consumer credit solutions; and Matthew Raphaelson, head of community bank strategy and initiatives.

The fired executives will not receive a bonus for 2016 and will be required to forfeit their unvested equity and vesting outstanding options, Bloomberg reports.

Prior to this week’s firings, Wells Fargo said it had let go 5,300 employees tied to the scandal. Despite this, no one else — including executives — had been held responsible for the fake accounts.

“You haven’t resigned, you haven’t returned a single nickel of personal earnings, you haven’t fired a single senior executive,” Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren said during the hearing. “Your definition of accountable is to push the blame to your low level employees… it’s gutless leadership.”